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Chamber of Commerce
900 Alder Street,
Campbell River, BC V9W 2P6
P 250-287-4636
F 250-286-6490
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Article
Volunteer Impact on Business
2009-04-25
An investment in volunteerism makes good economic sense and has a direct impact on the economy and business in our community. According to Stats Canada, there are over 161,000 nonprofits and registered charities in Canada. Collectively they contribute $112 billion in revenue towards the economy, a number larger than the GDP contribution of Canada’s entire manufacturing industry. Large numbers in the context of economic stimulus and impact. They represent 12 million volunteers giving 2 billion hours of their time, in many cases to the 80,000 organizations that have zero staff in place and are solely volunteer run, like many of the nonprofits in Campbell River.
The recent 2008 Deloitte volunteer impact survey identified skills-based volunteerism, the contribution of business knowledge and experience to help nonprofits increase their capacity, as a direct outcome that fostered meaningful business and leadership skills among their employees. 91% of the respondents from a Fortune 500 random sampling indicated that HR professionals saw significant business value in offering skills-based volunteering as part of their corporate training and development programs. And over 71% of nonprofit leaders believed they could significantly benefit from volunteers who help them improve their organization’s business practices. Yet, only 12 percent of nonprofits actually work with volunteers in this capacity. There is a large gap here and great potential to connect retired business leaders in our community to leverage their business expertise by volunteering in the nonprofit sector for the value and good of our community.
Businesses in Canada are increasingly seeing the value of volunteerism and acting as catalysts for community building, facilitating employee citizenry through company supported volunteerism, and responding directly to needs for financial and professional support. That’s good news because the paradox in times of economic downturns and job loss, are that many of these nonprofit organizations are called upon to provide even greater service to support community and client needs, putting ever increasing demand on their limited resources and the critical importance to attract and retain volunteers.
Investment in volunteerism is the type of out-of-box economic stimulus and diversification thinking that has the potential to leverage those volunteer talents and skills for innovative business, social and economic solutions that in turn, could be invested right back into our communities.
The Campbell River Chamber itself is a nonprofit organization governed by a dedicated volunteer board, comprised of Chamber Members. Our Chamber Member volunteer contributions are significant and have had a major impact on the vision and direction of the Chamber. The Chamber has great volunteer opportunities! We encourage you to consider volunteering with the Chamber. If you’re looking for a short term volunteer experience with great impact, you may be interested in the Advocacy or Membership Task Force, Membership Task Force or the Awards of Distinction or Business After Hours events. If Board Governance is your interest, then consider an opportunity as a Chamber Board of Director position. Volunteering with the Chamber provides excellent networking opportunities and you will have the opportunity to make a real difference and impact on business and community development.
If you are interested in volunteering with the Chamber, please contact the Chamber - Colleen Evans at 287-4513 or Ann LaCasse at 287-4636.
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